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Cotts (L, 0-1)IP: 0.2 H:3 R:5 ER:5 BB:3
ERA:27.00

And that is pretty much what today boiled down to. Cotts. 2/3 of an inning and 5 runs…excuse me…EARNED runs that is. Good thing we have these games. I’d hate to see us give the ball to Cotts in a similar situation without having some idea of how he might perform. Actually, that’s not fair. It’s still Spring. But come on…5 ER on 8 batters faced? Not good.

Also, 10 men left on base? Not good. Always a pleasure to watch the guys, especially the unknown to see what this team is made of in a more complete sense, including the minors…but I hope this isn’t the type of team we have this year. We need clutch hitting this year so let’s hope it shows up when it counts.

Did I miss something? What did Frandsen do to deserve getting plunked by 2 pitches in a Spring game? Granted, the first one was on a lame pitch by Lilly that didn’t break, but still. Regardless, just another reason to be thankful for Spring: getting our pitch control, well, under control. I thought Lilly looked good otherwise so that was good to see and I thoroughly enjoyed watching Soto throw out a guy attempting to steal as well as Pie going yard once again.

Piniella and Marquis apparently attempted to smooth things over. I liked hearing that Piniella said he was the kind of guy who admits when he’s wrong. Nothing worse than having to perform everyday for a blow-hard who doesn’t have that voice inside of him. Let him kick dirt at the umps and let’s keep the team in check. I like Marquis’ competitive nature but its way too early to be making comments like that. I like Marquis and if he can keep his head together, I’d love having a rotation of Zambrano, Lilly, Hill, Marquis, Dempster. But the club is real high on Marshall so there’s probably a ton I don’t know about him. Looking forward to seeing what he brings to the table this Spring, and also what Marquis learns to check at the door.

Here’s to waiting to see if Soriano’s fundamentally sound yet injured finger is truly a 5-day wait to having him back in the lineup. I know Piniella said that if his regulars can get about 70 at-bats in the Spring he’s happy, but as a fan, I think the Winter was long enough. Time to get our Soriano/Ramirez fix and get those at-bats in ASAP.

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